About Us

Heavy industry is the foundation of modern society. We need materials like cement, steel, and aluminum more than ever to rebuild our bridges and roads, construct wind and solar projects, and manufacture electric vehicles and heat pumps that will undergird our future. But we also need a new social contract with industry. Heavy industry made the middle class and ushered in a remarkable era of prosperity for many; it also threatens our climate, reinforces environmental racism, wastes valuable materials and energy, and leaves communities and workers behind. At Industrious Labs, our mission is to set into motion unstoppable policies, people power, and analysis to make a triple impact on climate, justice, and jobs that drastically reduce dangerous emissions, make industry accountable to communities and workers, and develop a circular economy. Because industry needs a second revolution.

About the Position

Guided by an inspiring vision, strategic plan, and significant early financial investment, we are seeking an entrepreneurial Deputy Director of People, Culture & Belonging to join our team. Industrious Labs is fully remote, and this role reports to Partner and COO Victoria Chu.

This newly created position will be the first dedicated HR role at Industrious Labs. The Deputy Director is a skilled relational leader with experience designing and implementing policies, best practices, and internal controls for human resources; nurturing and stewarding organizational culture; and guiding and supporting a feedback-rich professional development system. They are passionate about solving the climate crisis and transforming the industrial sector by strengthening the talented, dedicated team at Industrious Labs, and recruiting others to join our staff as we grow. The Deputy Director is energized by the challenges typical of mid-stage growth, excited to work with managers to support their teams, and committed to anti-racist practice.

Industrious Labs opened its doors in July, 2021, and publicly launched in October, 2022. In its first 2.5 years, its full-time staff has expanded to 16 professionals across three time zones; launched three major campaigns (with two additional campaigns in incubation); raised tens of millions of dollars on behalf of itself and movement partners; built an industrial facilities tracking tool; published a groundbreaking environmental justice analysis; organized major corporate buyers of industrial commodities to lobby the U.S. Department of Energy on climate policy; and much more. In mid-late 2023, Industrious Labs worked with trusted consultants to draft and finalize a 3-year strategic plan.

At a high level, the Deputy Director of People, Culture & Belonging will focus on:

• Supporting the staff at Industrious Labs with competent and compassionate HR administration (onboarding, payroll and benefits); career support and professional development; and grievance and conflict resolution
• Recruiting talented people to join the Industrious Labs team, and designing and implementing values-aligned recruitment and hiring processes
• Holding broad responsibilities around culture stewardship, and evaluating internal culture in line with our values

Other core responsibilities include:

HR administration

• Serve as primary liaison with Industrious Labs’ payroll, benefits and 401k providers
• Lead annual benefits selection, and offer ongoing benefits support and coordination to staff
• Finalize and maintain an Employee Handbook (already exists in draft form)
• Serve as point of first contact for employee grievances; resolve directly where possible, and escalate where necessary, in alignment with our Grievance Policy
• Provide coaching and advisory services to Industrious Labs managers on an as-needed basis
• Manage termination process (voluntary or involuntary), including exit interview, identifying handoffs, and administrative/operational aspects of offboarding

Hiring and talent recruitment

• Design and document an overarching recruitment strategy
• Achieve fluency and skill in Industrious Labs’ recruitment platform/software, and support hiring managers in utilizing the platform when necessary
• Draft new job descriptions and postings, in coordination with hiring managers
• Ensure continuity and consistency of hiring processes, uphold organizational values in our treatment of candidates, and leave both successful and unsuccessful candidates with a positive impression of Industrious Labs
• Conduct early resume and phone screening of candidates on behalf of hiring managers
• Track and evaluate success of our recruitment efforts across several metrics, including racial and gender representation
• Manage staff onboarding and training with clear process and sequence, delegating job-specific training to managers, department heads and other staff as needed

Culture stewardship

• Observe, track and hold a broad view of organizational culture, through the lens of our organizational values, bringing concerns or opportunities to leadership as needed
• Provide career support and professional development coaching to staff
• Manage and track professional development budget allotment for staff
• Design and implement periodic performance evaluation process, ensuring the creation of thoughtful, detailed workplans and compassionate, feedback-rich, two-way conversations between managers and the staff they support
• Support managers in creating performance improvement plans, accountability and support measures for staff, as needed
• On a periodic basis, review Industrious Labs compensation philosophy for market competitiveness and propose updates as needed to leadership
• Measure and track staff compliance with minimum PTO requirements, and (compassionately) hold staff accountable for taking minimum PTO

The Successful Candidate

The incoming Deputy Director of People, Culture & Belonging is driven by their belief and commitment to Industrious Labs’ vision, mission, and values. Through their track record and expertise – optimally within the climate or another social justice movement, though a diversity of experience in the private and/or public sector is also valuable – the successful candidate will play a vital role in the development and growth of this dynamic organization.

The Deputy Director joins a deeply committed team that brings a track record of success in campaign strategy, data analysis, field-building, and communications, with a particular focus on climate and industrial transformation. The successful candidate is entrepreneurial and excited about the prospect of building something new in the climate movement from the ground up. They have the experience of working within established HR departments and processes, but are flexible, entrepreneurial and creative, and are willing to reinvent processes to suit a growing organization’s needs. They are humble, emotionally intelligent, committed to anti-racism, and open to their own growth and learning.

Despite enormous obstacles involved in decarbonizing and transforming heavy industry, the Industrious Labs team operates with a spirit of possibilities and seeks a Deputy Director who shares the belief that we can all do things we’ve never done before and can stretch ourselves to achieve incredible results.

The successful candidate will also possess most of the following Core and Preferred qualifications:

Core

• Strong commitment to the mission, vision, policies, and goals of Industrious Labs.
• At least 10 years of increasing responsibility in the field of human resources, with a proven track record of HR administration, talent recruitment and culture stewardship.
• Strong collaboration skills to work effectively with finance, operations, and programmatic roles.
• Comfort in scrappy / entrepreneurial / resource-lean situations.
• Tendency to be excited rather than intimidated by the challenge of what's unknown about this role.
• Clarity of vision and a commitment to the highest levels of integrity, excellence, and collaboration.
• Experience fostering and developing diverse, equitable and inclusive HR practices, including in recruitment, hiring, management and evaluation.
• Demonstrated experience working across lines of race, class, gender, and geography.
• Experience in the climate movement or another social justice movement.
• Proven ability to prioritize and be flexible in a fast-paced, constantly evolving, and collaborative environment, where working on a team and working individually are all required.
• Commitment to continuous learning, hunger for knowledge, and willingness to ask questions and self-correct; an approach that is curious, self-directed, and entrepreneurial.
• Openness to giving and receiving direct, compassionate feedback.
• Highly collaborative work style with the ability to operate as a peer and thought partner to leadership team members.

Preferred

• Professional experience in private and/or public sector in addition to the climate / social justice space.
• Experience using Greenhouse recruiting platform.

Salary and Benefits:

The salary for this position is $128,000. Industrious Labs has a policy not to negotiate on salaries. Historically, negotiations reward those who have the skill, privilege, and confidence to ask for more money; and because not everyone has those skills, allowing for negotiations undermines the economic equity we strive for as an organization. Rather than use negotiations to drive competitive salaries, we endeavor to pay people well. Our transparent salary scale is based on the experience, competencies, and responsibilities required to thrive in this role.

Industrious Labs offers a competitive set of benefits, including 100% of comprehensive health care coverage for employees (medical, dental, and vision), a 50% employer contribution toward health care coverage for dependents; work from home stipend, up to 5% employer match to 401k; and 11 paid holidays plus unlimited paid time off, including a mandatory minimum of 15 business days PTO.

Our Commitment to Racial Equity, Diversity, Inclusion & Climate Justice:

We believe that diversity in our team isn’t just a value but brings different lived experience and perspective that is essential to solving the climate crisis. If you’ve read this job description and are excited by it, and if you can see yourself happily filling this role and making a difference on climate change, we really hope you apply. Industrious Labs is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to transparent and equitable recruitment, hiring and promotion processes that foster inclusion and belonging. If you need a reasonable accommodation during the application or interview process, please email Victoria Chu at [email protected].

Application Procedure:

To apply, please submit a resume and cover letter, and answer the following questions:

1. What motivates you to spend your time, skills and expertise working on industrial transformation and climate justice?
2. Why are you inspired to fill the first full-time HR role at Industrious Labs?

This position is open until filled. Candidate review and phone screens begin in January, 2024, and will be conducted throughout the search. We anticipate several steps of mutual exploration, including a phone screen, panel interview(s) and thought exercises for finalist candidates. Our search processes generally take 3 - 4 months.